The first time I heard about undergoing an extended water only fast, I thought you’ve got to be crazy. I could and would never do that, was my second thought. Then a fellow Health Coach Alex Pujol asks me if I heard Peter Attia’s podcast on water only fasting. So, I heard and my mindset started to change. Maybe this is doable.
Fasting is not new, it has been around as long as humans have been on this planet. It has been a part of most religions for centuries. Used to cleanse the body of toxins and impurities and help one focus on our inner selves.
Modern times in western countries has brought endless amounts of food and loss of religious practices. Fasting has not been practiced or talked about much over the last few decades. But, now for health reasons it is making a resurgence. Research has shown the many benefits of fasting.
I had already been performing a 5 day fasting mimicking diet every other month. The changes in physique were noticeable, so was the shift in mindset about the quality of the food I was ingesting. My mind felt clear, I was more energetic, sleep improved, I had no joint pain any more, BP was normal and yes I dropped and bunch of weight. I even had to go buy new clothes, none of the pants I was wearing last year fit.
Alex and I picked a Monday to start a 3 day water only fast. The Friday before we both started to reduce carb intake. About 40 grams on Friday, 20 -30 on Sat and close to zero on Sunday. I also chose to eliminate coffee, but that was a personal choice. Alex kept his coffee. We did this so that Day 1 would not be a complete shock to the system, kind of easing into it. I call it priming.
To keep this post a bit shorter I will skip Day 1 and Day 2 since I have already written about those. You can click the links to see how those days went.
Wednesday was day 3. Woke up feeling well. I was hungry a few times during the day. This was manageable. Work kept me busy so I didn’t think much about food. By the evening I was really wanting to eat, but it wasn’t hunger. It was something else, much deeper. At first I planned to go to Thursday morning. Then thought, well 72 hours makes 3 days. It ended at 8pm Wednesday night. I eased back into food, my first 90 calories in 3 days was organic bone broth. That felt good.
Thursday morning I had a smoothie with almond milk, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I felt amazing! The sense of accomplishment was one thing. The way my body felt was another. I felt light, clear, focused, energized.
Now the numbers. On Thursday morning I weighed 174.6 my body fat percentage was 19.8 and BMI 23.7. Just to give you some background what these numbers meant to me. 10 years ago when I was doing triathlons I could not get my weight under 185, and that was a struggle. My lean body mass index is now 18.7. That puts me right between healthy and athletic. That is number I could not reach even while training and competing in triathlon’s.
Last December I turned 50, I weighed about 200 lbs and my BMI was over 25. I attended to 2 conferences that changed my life that month and have given me the ability to change the life’s of others. The first was for Apeiron Human Potential Health Coaches where I met Dr Dan Stickler and Dr Mickra Hamilton to whom I owe for the knowledge and inspiration to follow my dreams of an extended healthy life and the ability to guide others in the same way they have done for me.
The other was the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) World Congress. After these 2 events last year I came back with a new mission. I would no longer wait for myself, my friends or family and of course you, my reader, to get sick and then find a drug to manage the symptoms. My mission is to make you ANTI-FRAGILE, to keep you from getting to that point, so you can live a long, healthy life, full of vitality and fun.
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